Blowing Horn harvests wind energy with a multi-rotor turbine

Are you tired of seeing the same old giant wind turbines in a field or offshore? And do you worry about their impact on migrating birds? Hooman Tahvildar Akbary from Iran has a solution that is both super efficient and beautiful.

Designed for the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Competition, a site specific art and energy competition for Copenhagen, Blowing Horn references the horns people used to use to communicate to one another over great distances (to me, a hard of hearing person, it looks like the horns we used to use to hear.)

“By reducing the cone diameter from the mouth,” writes the design team, “the speed of the wind increases towards the narrower end of the horn—an application of the compact acceleration turbine lens that makes use of the venture effect.”

The inside of the giant horn ‘monument’ contains a multi-rotor turbine that uses just one drive shaft. Designed by Doug Selsam, this technology allows for additional energy generation. While the horn captures the energy, the large base upon which it rests serves a separate function, the designers explain.

“The ship form at the base of monument is designed to act as a channel, which leads wind through a Windbelt™ array on the deck and the outer shell of this new golden horn for environmental energy production.

True to the competition guidelines, this energy generator doubles as a stellar example of public art that not only engages the public, but also generates energy.

I expect it wouldn’t be that efficient because of the disturbed air moving past the one windmill to the others. Most of those behind the first one would flutter unable to get any airflow from one direction.